Video Card Question

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Zipp080

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Is a 'hz' on a card not the same as it's clock? Because I just recently bought a 9800 PRO and the core clock came as 378 and the memory clock came at 337. But then I read on websites that cards like the 9600XT have a core clock of 500. Why is it so much higher on such a lower card?
 
It's a bit like (I assume) your PC - Your 'Core' clock runs at nnnnMhz but your memory runs at nnotherMhz.

I assume again, that the older cards have had more time to settle and therefore the chip production will be producing purer products capable of running at higher Mhz - ie The Athlon started out at 1000Mhz (or whatever) but as the production process improved, higher yield silicon became the norm allowing higher Mhz 3000 or whatever it is now.....ok I know the die size has reduced too, but you get the drift?

HTH - Peace
 
That is saying the opposite of my question though. My question is, why are my clocks for the 9800 PRO much lower than a 9600XT. My default clocks for my 9800 PRO came around the mid 300's, but on a 9600XT they come around 500.
 
Apologies

I think your confusion may arise due to DDR. DDR runs at say 300Mhz but as it passes data on both the rising and falling edges of the waveform it is often stated as being 600Mhz

BTW The 9600 has a 256 bit memory interface and the 9600 only 128 so the 9600 can shift data a lot lot quicker
 
Zipp080 said:
That is saying the opposite of my question though. My question is, why are my clocks for the 9800 PRO much lower than a 9600XT. My default clocks for my 9800 PRO came around the mid 300's, but on a 9600XT they come around 500.

There is another thing to consider: texel fill rate.

Although a 9600XT may operate at a higher core frequency, its base architecture consists of 4 rendering pipelines and one texture mapping unit for each.

The 9800 Pro, on the other hand, operates on 8 rendering pipelines with one texture mapping unit each.

9600XT: 500 MHz * 4 pipelines * 1 TMU = 2000 megatexels/sec.
9800 Pro: 380 MHz * 8 pipelines * 1 TMU = 3040 megatexels/sec.

Texel fill rate is a theoretical estimate of raw performance, the rate of a chip's ability to produce pixels with texture maps applied to them. (Units: texels)

Also, you have to consider that the 9800 Pro is manufactured on a 0.15µm process, while the 9600 series are manufactured on 0.13. The smaller die size also allows for a higher core frequency.
 
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